1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an end plate for a fuel cell, a fuel cell, and a fuel cell system.
2. Description of Related Art
A fuel cell, which includes an end plate on a side of one end of a stack body in which a plurality of unit cells is stacked, is known. A pump, which supplies fluids such as reaction gases and a cooling medium, generates heat when the pump operates. The efficiency of the pump decreases at high temperatures. Therefore, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-021568 (JP 2011-021568 A) has proposed a technology for bringing a compression pump, which compresses air and supplies the compressed air to a fuel cell, into contact with a metal end plate via a heat transfer member to transfer heat generated by the compression pump to the end plate for heat release.
For a fuel cell system having a fuel cell and a pump as described above, the reduction of the size of the pump has been taken into consideration in response to requests for reducing the size of the system. Since an amount of heat generated by the pump increases as the size of the pump is reduced, an amount of released heat may become insufficient and the temperature of the pump may not be sufficiently decreased, in the configuration described in JP 2011-021568 A.